Air carrier double-act snares record patronage
The festive season has boosted combined passenger traffic of Cathay Pacific Airways and its subsidiary, Dragonair Airlines Ltd, by a double-digit growth last month.
The two Hong Kong carriers had 2.12 million passengers last month, up 10.4 percent from a year earlier and its load factor rose 1.4 percentage points to 80.8 percent, Cathay Pacific, Hong Kong’s biggest airline, said yesterday.
Over the year, the two airlines carried 23 million passengers, rising 4.3 percent from the previous year, the statement said.
“The robust growth in passenger traffic continued in December and a very busy holiday peak brought a strong year to a satisfactory close,” said Ian Shiu, Cathay’s General Manager of Revenue Management, Sales & Distribution. “We expect business to remain steady and bookings to be healthy through the next peak at Chinese New Year.”
The inclusion of Dragonair helped boost Cathay’s passenger traffic on the Chinese mainland last year.
The combined passenger traffic of the two carriers grew 1.2 percent last year to 5.8 billion revenue passenger kilometers on the mainland.
Cathay took over Dragonair in 2006 for HK$8.22 billion (US$1.05 billion) to expand its destinations on the mainland.
Before the deal was sealed, Cathay offered passenger services in just two mainland cities - Beijing and Xiamen in Fujian Province - while Dragonair flies to 22 mainland cities.
Last month, the two airliners carried 147,800 tonnes of freight, rising 2.9 percent year-on-year and for the whole year, they saw tonnage growth of three percent to 1.64 million tones.
“We were pleased to see tonnage growth of 2.9 percent for the month,” said Ron Mathison, Cathay’s Director & General Manager of Cargo.
Tags: Airways